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Cracks in the paint
London, ON
December 2013
For more Thematic "looking way up", please click here.

As I was walking the dog last night, I noticed something I hadn't seen in a while: pavement. This has been such a brutally cold and long winter that the snow, which normally melts between storms, had kept concrete sidewalks and most side streets completely covered with snow and ice. Thanks to a couple of above-freezing days, that started to change, albeit slowly.

As I tried to keep Frasier from following his schnauzer-bred nose into every newly uncovered - and generally filthy - nook and cranny in the neighborhood, I started noticing details that only a pedestrian moving at a snail's pace would pick up on. Like how much of a disaster the roads and sidewalks have become, and how dangerous it can be to cross them even at the grand speed of 2.36 km/h.

I thought back to this pic, taken in a quiet parking lot in December. The paint needed a fresh coat and the potholes were just out of frame, waiting to imprison any motorist too occupied with texting to notice. Still, cracked paint and all, the geometry seemed right. So did the message: keep looking up. The road always beckons us forward.

Your turn: Where does this arrow point?